Via Billboard.com, blink-182’s latest album “California” sold 186,000 units in the week since its release, earning it the number one spot on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart. It’s the first time blink has done this Take Off Your Pants And Jacket in 2001. Congratulations Mark, Travis, Matt, and all those in the blink-182 machine! Come discuss this achievement at our forums!

Blink-182’s new album California has debuted at the #2 spot in Australia, finishing just behind Sydney’s own Delta Goodram, per TheMusic.au. This becomes the third blink album to debut at #2 in Australia, joining Take Off Your Pants And Jacket (2001) and Neighborhoods (2011); the self-titled album debuting at #3 in 2003.

The blink-182 world should find out Sunday if the trio managed to snatch the #1 spot in America with their latest album.

California has been out formally for less than a week, yet reviews are pouring in from all corners of print and digital media, and most of them are just as divided over the new album as the blink fan community.

Metacritic, a review aggregator, calculates summaries based on user and critic reviews. Currently the album stands at a 62 “metascore,” giving the album a “generally favorable” consensus based on formal reviews from publications & news outlets. The album’s score from user rankings, however, has it placed at a higher 8.0/10 grade.

Here are some of those impressions from noteworthy publications, print sources, online magazines, etc:

California would seem no less anomalous for what it’s trying to be: the pop-punk eminence album, evidence humbly submitted that an aging pack of skater brats hasn’t jumped off the hedonic treadmill just yet and is still young, selectively dumb, and full of commiserating angst.

…in the end, California sounds like what Blink-182 probably should sound like in 2016: upbeat, hooky and, above anything else, a total blast. Some will call the lack of truly progressive moments a regression while others will hail the album for being a breezy throwback. But Hoppus, Skiba and Barker have given Blink-182 momentum for future productivity and success.

…this is still the catchiest music they’ve made since 2001’s Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, a feast of “summer, yo!” riffs and petulant “na-na-na” refrains. “She’s Out of Her Mind” builds a cheery singalong moment out of the term “anti-social,” and on “No Future” and “Kings of the Weekend,” hooks pile up like empty beer cans.

California is the sound of Blink-182 desperately trying to remain relevant by outsourcing its creativity. While it’s a gambit that could work—as Feldmann is more than capable of making hit songs happen—Blink-182 never needed much help in that department anyway. The result is another homogenous addition to Feldmann’s growing résumé. But this time he unintentionally removed the soul of pop-punk’s clown princes in the process.

But the main problem with California isn’t that the songs are bad — it’s just that there are too many (16 for some reason), and not enough ideas to fill them…Ultimately, fortysomething Blink may be cursed by their early success and their genre of choice: For pop-punk bands, life is just too short to last long.

Middle age hasn’t brought about a reassessment of ambition for Blink-182 — there is no Broadway rock opera, no easing into politically charged waters. And what a relief that is. On this pleasantly familiar if not especially imaginative new album, the band’s subject matter verges on the bittersweet, or just outright bitter, but still they grin…The things that once felt like a release will eventually become cages. And so a little bit of melancholy is inevitable as freedom gives way to responsibility and ambition begets regret — an endless summer leaves a hell of a sunburn.

…the main points Blink had to prove with this record were: that they could write without DeLonge, and that his distinctive voice wasn’t the glue holding all the parts together. ‘California’ is too long, but has the humour, pace, emotion and huge choruses of a classic Blink record. Mission accomplished.

There are a few spirited attempts to summon the adolescent irreverence of old, but generally this is a tired – and tiring – work. Perhaps the presence of DeLonge and his tales of alien invasion might have livened things up a bit.

One of our forum regulars, Elevator, has created the ultimate “California” survey!

It is filled with questions about YOUR opinions on the new album! So far it has already surpassed 700 results! be a part of blink-182 history and take this survey! you never know, the results of this could be found by blink themselves! you’re views could be seen by the band!

The results will be announced on August 1st and we will keep you posted!

John Feldmann spoke to Fuse about the way the tracks on California came together and their meanings. We’re going to post some samples, but you can read the whole thing yourself here.

Cynical

We’re starting the album out with “This is who we are, this is what we’re doing.”

Bored To Death

My idea for the song was very much, “let’s throw everything and the kitchen sink at it.” Let’s do everything I can think of that reminds me of classic Blink: the guitar riffs, the kind of hip-hop/drum and bass songs, the half-time choruses like in “Stay Together For the Kids,” I had all these ideas and we threw them into one song with a classic Mark Hoppus lyric.

She’s Out Of Her Mind

It was song originally called “Orange County Girl.” Mark’s wife is from Orange County. We wanted to write a classic, no-brainer pop-punk song: major key, fun, happy, classic.

Los Angeles

I’d say “Los Angeles” is definitely the heaviest song on the record. We needed to experiment on the darker side of where Neighborhoods left off, where Blink-182 left off.

Sober

Mark wrote the lyrics about falling in love with his wife, being on the road, the dichotomy of having to perform and being wasted, that’s some of the most inopportune times…

Built This Pool

He played the song, the guitar came in, he said “Yeah I get it.” He played it once and was like “Is that it?” and we left it in.

No Future

My agenda was to have an album that was palatable for a generation of ADD kids. In the end, Travis was right. “No Future” could be my favorite song on the record.

Home Is Such A Lonely Place

We were talking about what the day is going to look like when we’ve had our families for so long, what’s going to happen when they leave? What are our lives going to look like when we built them around our children? He had this concept of our kids being gone. Everyone cried when we played it for them.

Kings Of The Weekend

We’ve all had day jobs and we all know what it’s like to have that day off to do what we want, this is that song.

Teenage Satellites

Mark had this idea of being kid and not knowing who you are, not having enough courage to say what you mean. That’s “Teenage Satellites.”

Left Alone

Matt Skiba really put up his hand and said “Let me take this one,” and came up with this epic chorus idea and chorus melody.

Rabbit Hole

As an adult, to go backwards and ask, “What was that first thought that caused me to go through this spiral of nothingness?” The idea of the song is “I’m not going to go down this rabbit hole of negative thinking.” That’s where the song started.

San Diego

The history of the song [is about] growing up in San Diego, having so many of their work partners being from San Diego and having a member who lives in San Diego who is no longer in the band…it was a song that Mark didn’t want to write.

The Only Thing That Matters

this is one that fits the bill of what Southern California pop-punk feels like when I was growing up.

California

We all liked the idea of writing a song about our state, where we live and love. To me it’s the most beautiful place in the world, this song was us giving credit to how lucky we are to have lived here and grown up here, raising families here, the whole thing.

Brohemian Rhapsody

that one came together from start to finish, from the inception to the mix, literally in nine minutes. It was over before it even started.